Misunderstandings occasionally happen in written communication because additional communication channels such as body language are unavailable. For example, a written statement may be interpreted as having a certain undesirable tone, while the same statement delivered orally would not be so interpreted.
As another example, an individual composing a written communication may be more prone to making statements that the individual later regrets. Carelessness in written communications is also problematic. For example, an individual may inadvertently make a legally problematic statement.
To add to these problems, the threshold for what is considered problematic human communication is highly context-dependent. For example, a message from a writer to a first recipient may not be problematic in the context of an existing relationship between the writer and the first recipient, but may be problematic if delivered to a second recipient that has a different relationship with the writer.
Certain existing technologies have attempted to solve small, discrete problems of this type. For example, an existing email assistant can automatically detect when the text of an email mentions an attachment but the email does not contain an attachment.
However, limited solutions of this type do not provide a comprehensive solution to different types of communication problems, including inappropriate/offensive language, ambiguous wording, legally problematic wording, or undesirable tone (e.g., overly aggressive or passive aggressive tone).